Paving the Moon: A New Laser Approach to Creating Lunar Roads and Landing Pads

A study demonstrates the potential of lasers to melt lunar soil for creating roads and landing pads on the Moon, using resources available on-site.

It may be possible to create paved roads and landing pads on the Moon by using lasers to melt lunar soil into a more solid, layered substance, reports a proof-of-concept study in Scientific Reports. Although these experiments were carried out on Earth using a substitute for lunar dust, these findings demonstrate the viability of the technique and suggest it could be replicated on the Moon. However, further work may be needed to refine the process, according to the scientists.

Challenges of Moon Dust

Moon dust poses a significant challenge to lunar rovers as, due to the low levels of gravity, it tends to float around when disturbed and can damage equipment. Therefore, the infrastructure such as roads and landing pads will be essential to mitigate dust issues and facilitate transport on the Moon. However, transporting materials for construction from Earth is costly, so it will be essential to use the resources available on the Moon.

Methodology and Results

Ginés-Palomares, Miranda Fateri, and Jens Günster melted a fine-grained material called EAC-1A (developed by ESA as a substitute for lunar soil) with a carbon dioxide laser to simulate how lunar dust can be melted by focused solar radiation on the Moon into a solid substance.

The researchers experimented with laser beams of different strengths and sizes (up to 12 kilowatts and 100 millimeters across respectively) in order to create a robust material, although they established that criss-crossing or overlapping the laser beam path led to cracking. They developed a strategy using a 45-millimeter diameter laser beam to produce triangular, hollow-centered geometric shapes approximately 250 millimeters in size. These could be interlocked to create solid surface across large areas of lunar soil which could serve as roads and landing pads, suggest the authors.

Implementation on the Moon

To reproduce this approach on the Moon, the authors calculate that a lens of approximately 2.37 meters squared would need to be transported from Earth to act as a sunlight concentrator in place of the laser. The relatively small size of equipment needed would be an advantage in future Moon missions.

For more on this research, see How Lasers Transform Moon Dust Into Roads.

Reference: “Laser melting manufacturing of large elements of lunar regolith simulant for paving on the Moon” by Juan-Carlos Ginés-Palomares, Miranda Fateri, Eckehard Kalhöfer, Tim Schubert, Lena Meyer, Nico Kolsch, Monika Brandić Lipińska, Robert Davenport, Barbara Imhof, René Waclavicek, Matthias Sperl, Advenit Makaya and Jens Günster, 12 October 2023, Scientific Reports.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-42008-1

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